As indicated by its title, this paper-bound volume constitutes the proceedings of a one-day symposium held at the School of Public Health of Columbia University on Jan. 31, 1952. The 32 participants included geneticists, nutritionists, veterinarians, and other biological research workers from universities (chiefly Columbia), research laboratories and hospitals, the National Institutes of Health, and pharmaceutical houses, as well as commercial animal breeders.

The symposium emphasized the fact that the experimental animal is the most complex and variable of all the laboratory "instruments" employed in biological research and that proper selection, feeding, and care are highly important to the outcome of any experiment. It points out that progress in improving and standardizing animals for experimental purposes is indicated by the organization of the Animal Care Panel, in Chicago, and the Institute of Animal Resources of the National Research Council. The papers and discussions of the symposium were concerned almost exclusively